Social Media Project

Social Media is the driving force behind customer relationships with the brand. I was excited to choose the Starbucks brand for this particular reason. Social media is old enough to pique business' interest in creating value, yet still new enough that many people can't grasp its importance. This project was useful because it made us research every social media aspect of a particular company. Its almost eerie to think how certain brands seem to penetrate our lives through word of mouth, advertising, and promo items. Exploring their social media tactics reveals just how they do it.

Research showed that search engines show Starbuck's main pages as the first hits--their website, Facebook, and wikipedia entry. Beyond that, it was interesting to see that most hits were all links to news articles. Starbucks' wikipedia was quite extensive and concrete, founded in 2003 and recently updated within the last month. Even though Starbucks keeps up with traditional social media like Facebook and Twitter, they go above and beyond by making a separate website with a completely different concept. My Starbucks Idea is an online "suggestion box," which allows consumers to communicate with the brand with their personal ideas. The neat thing is that the company responds with their reactions to ideas, and which ones they are implementing and which ones they have already done. Their YouTube channel has videos announcing new products and welcoming back old favorites, and their Twitter account has one new tweet every day with a quirky fact or announcements on products. It's nice that they include cute sayings, not just constantly bombarding people with coffee advertisement. Their Facebook has two separate pages, one for the company and one for their Frapp, both of which are updated regularly. 

Some very positive findings about Starbucks was their overwhelming presence not as an annoying advertiser, but rather an approachable company creating a great customer experience. SOme recommendations included the creation of a social media policy to ensure that their messages across all mediums remain consistent. Creating incentives to visit their numerous social media sites would also boost online traffic even more, although Starbucks has strong numbers already. All in all, Starbucks is the epitome of a social media- savvy company. 

Wikispaces Starbucks Page: https://ism3004.wikispaces.com/Starbucks

Graphic Source: Flickr user Paul Papadimitriou

Week 12: Clear on Website Usability

Week 11: Clear on Structured vs. Unstructured Data

Have you ever tried to hit Ctrl+F to search some kind of document, only to realize its an JPEG or a collective image? Have you ever tried to look up a place or a city on to get search results for a completely different state or country?

Data is very important, but not as important as information. There is a key difference. Information is simply data presented in such a way that it is informative and key to decision-making (think about it, really). What enables data to become information?


This is where data falls into two categories:

Structured Data
This is data that can be searched, queried, and manipulated to show key patterns. It is sorted in a clear and consistent manner so that there is no question to the validity of the information, such as Melbourne, FL vs. Melbourne, Australia. This data includes databases, tables, longitudes and latitudes, etc.  Think Access.

Unstructured Data
This is the "everything else" category. Word documents, e-mails, pictures, etc. This data is very free-form, and does not have to be detailed. Think blogs. I can write anything I want on here, there is no such think as criteria, or validations. I can go like this ysagdfkjaytfdsajdsfgukaystfdaesfgukasytfd.

Graphic Source: Sarah Reyes

Access Database Project

Access, you are a pain in the butt.

Access looked so easy to use during the lecture, but I found it a little difficult to use. Thankfully the project was straightforward and matched the lectures. I had trouble going back and forth going between Design and Table views because I kept getting error messages about my validation criteria. When I tried to go to Table view to check the data, it wouldn't allow me to leave Design view without deleting my validations or deleting the actual data. Aside from pesky issues like that, the project went smoothly. I learned how to create reports, forms, and queries. I think the tool I would get the most use out of is the form tool, its a quick and easy way to store and add information that can be easily read and/or retrieved even by someone who is not familiar with Access.

For the first part of the project, I tried to add a lot of validation data and text, exploring different criteria options that were explained in the lectures. To make the database less prone to mistakes in data entry, I'd suggest using those tools through the various projects like the forms or reports. I definitely liked how easy it is to design reports, not many programs offer that kind of layout flexibility. Overall, Access is worth learning in conjunction with Excel, it just takes a little patience.

Week 10: Clear on Access

I have never had any experience with Microsoft Access before, except occasionally scrolling past it to get to other programs like Word or PowerPoint. In fact, I thought it was one of those annoying, rarely-used programs like Outlook (yes, I just called it outdated. I might be wrong, but I'm strictly working off first impressions here.)

Anyways, I expected to watch this week's lectures in a state of sad confusion. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this wasn't a scary program at all, and it was probably even more intuitive that Excel. Granted, there is a bit of a learning curve with the interface, but I found a variety of features that just seemed to make perfect sense for usability. For example, in Excel, if you want to make a slew of tests, limits, exceptions, etc., you've got to come up with the perfect formula and proceed to stick it in a cell. With Access, fields come with nifty things like property boxes and result sets which allow you to sort information with a super easy-to-use drop down box. No more trying to figure out long equations, just tell Access what you want it to do.

So far, Access seems pretty easy to use as far as creating forms and reports, much easier than Excel's pivot graphs. However, the actual Access project has yet to be started, so I could be singing a different tune come next blog post. But we'll see, maybe I found my new best friend.

Graphic Source: Flickr user Tillwe

Week 9: Clear on Moore's Law

According to the Information System's textbook, Moore's Law states that in eighteen month's time, the next generation of processors will be twice as fast and cost the same as today's processors. This not only means faster and better technology for consumers, but faster, better and cheaper technology. Moore's law is the key factor for the birth of "the internet of things"--the idea that there are more things connected to the internet than people on the internet--and programs such as OLPC, One Laptop per Child. The business of rapidly changing technology affects the world.

This also ties in with another important phenomenon: price elasticity. Fluctuating prices can either have a great effect or no effect on the quantity sold. Technology is very price elastic--as prices go down, demand goes up, quickening the spread of new technology. In fact, computer chips are so ubiquitous they are now integrated in everything from disposable products like RFID baggage tickets and household products like vacuum cleaners, to weather-reading umbrellas and light up prescription bottles. With Moore's Law, quality exponentially increases and price decreases over time, but how long can it last?

Size, heat, and power are the three forces that drive Moore's Law closer and closer to extinction. You can only go so small, disperse so much heat, and create so much power before its physically impossible to make any more adjustments. The only way to continue progress is to delay the inevitable by finding alternate solutions through efficiency. As we continue to push new technology, it will be interesting to see just what new twists our gadgets will have in the future.

Graphic Source: Flickr user Moe_

Excel Project

Surprisingly enough, this turned out to be one of my favorite project of this class so far. It was quick and easy, especially since I had the lecture videos to refer to as well. (Now watch me get a horrible grade or something).

Just kidding. I've had experience with Excel before, but it was mostly self-taught, or shortcuts discovered through trial-and-error. I've never had to deal with large amounts of data before though, so learning the keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl+home to return to the top left of the worksheet or how to zoom down to the end of a data block was quite useful. I also brushed up on long-forgotten basics like equations, which I rarely have to use. Pivot tables looked a little scary at first, but they are a useful tool to see quick results on bulks of information. I also liked the neat conditional formatting--decorating with a purpose! (As you may see in my lovely picture, pink for girls and blue for boys. Although I must say I really hate pink).

Normally I use Excel to organize information, but I never had a need to analyze anything. Now that I understand how equations works and see how simple they really are, I'll probably venture out to establishing budget books or something to that extent. As much as I really don't look forward to class projects and homework, I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciate this segment on learning how to use Excel. 

Graphic Source: Me, myself and I.